Illinois Abortion Case Settled

Showdown Averted In High Court

An Illinois case with the potential to further erode the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion was settled privately late Wednesday, averting a showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court.

State officials and abortion rights lawyers immediately asked the high court, scheduled to hear arguments on the case in 13 days, to put off action while they try to make the agreement final.

The settlement ended weeks of negotiations in the case, Turnock v. Ragsdale, which challenged controversial state regulations governing abortion clinics. The regulations included specific instructions on operating room size, ventilation systems and other building requirements that abortion rights supporters said would make abortions more expensive and less accessible.

Key to the agreement was the creation of a new class of less-regulated clinics in which women could end pregnancies up to 18 weeks of gestation. Abortions done at that time do not involve incisions or require general anesthesia.

After 18 weeks, abortions would have to take place in hospital-like clinics or hospitals. Doctors could still perform limited numbers of abortions in their offices if they deemed them medically necessary.

The agreement would allow the state`s Department of Public Health to regulate abortion clinics for the first time since 1985, when Rockford abortion doctor Richard Ragsdale won a court decision declaring the state`s regulations excessive.

For the settlement to become effective, it must be approved by the Supreme Court next week, though that is generally seen as a formality. U.S. District Judge John Nordberg in Chicago then must approve the agreement.

It was Nordberg who ruled in 1985 that the state`s regulations unconstitutionally restricted women`s access to abortion by making the procedure more expensive and less available.

Emerging from eight hours of final negotiations, Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan told a news conference, ``If the Supreme Court grants our motion, this is the result: A woman`s constitutional right is preserved, and the Department of Public Health will have regulatory authority to set and enforce health standards that protect the women who choose to have an abortion.``

``We`re very, very pleased,`` said Sue Purrington, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women and chairwoman of the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance.

``The constitutional right for women to have abortions is preserved, and the regulations dealing with safety for women stand.``

The Supreme Court opened the door to increased state regulation this summer by upholding a Missouri abortion law in the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services case. Abortion rights groups feared that the court would use the Ragsdale case to go a step further in restricting abortion.

Wednesday`s settlement also appears to remove a political thorn from Hartigan`s campaign to become governor in 1990. Hartigan helped negotiate the settlement between the Department of Public Health and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which represents Ragsdale.

Hartigan, a Democrat, has sought to portray himself as favoring a woman`s right to choose an abortion. But abortion rights groups thought him less than sincere for also defending the challenged regulations.

``He`s a political candidate taking the pulse of the electorate, post-Webster,`` said Patricia Dougherty, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League in Illinois. ``He knows that resistance to abortion rights will not sit well with the voters.``

Hartigan`s likely Republican opponent for governor, Secretary of State Jim Edgar, said he was pleased an agreement had been reached, but added, ``It is unfortunate that this matter was not resolved long ago.``

Edgar questioned whether the settlement would result in the state paying the ACLU`s legal fees, an issue Hartigan and the ACLU said was too early to discuss.

Hartigan said he faxed to the Supreme Court a copy of a motion to defer action on the Ragsdale case. He had said Wednesday was probably the last day a settlement could be reached since the parties were obliged to tell the court whether the case would be argued Dec. 5 in Washington.

The new so-called surgi-centers established by the settlement would be devoted only to abortions. The state would have some regulatory power over the centers, including quarterly inspections, but far less than in the contested regulations.

The surgi-centers would not be subject to the strict building requirements in the regulations, which dictate the size of operating rooms and require details such as closets for janitors and supplies. Surgi-center operators would not have to hold public hearings before opening the facilities, but this requirement would still apply to clinics performing abortions after 18 weeks.

ACLU lawyers said those restrictions would require abortion clinics to become small hospitals, raising the price of abortions or forcing some clinics to close down.